C-5 dangerous at night

The C-5 highway—especially that stretch between Market! Market! and Kalayaan Avenue—is very dangerous at night.

Unidentified persons hurl rocks at passing vehicles.

My friend, Louie Ysmael, was on his way home to Valle Verde in Pasig City from Fort Bonifacio at

1 a.m. yesterday when his car’s window was shattered by a rock on Kalayaan Avenue just before the bridge.

“I thought I was shot at. There was a hole in the right rear trunk window the size of my fist and the rest of the tempered glass was shattered,” Louie told me.

That was the second time in three years it happened to him, Louie said, the first one being near Market! Market! on C-5 northbound, as well.

If the police are useless at apprehending the rock throwers at passing motorists, some armed motorists might take matters into their own hands, Louie said.

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Persons who get caught throwing rocks at passing vehicles just for kicks should be made to realize the severity of their act.

At Sitio Sta. Fe, Barangay Bacungan, Puerto Princesa City, I summoned to my farmhouse the teenagers who were known to hurl rocks or empty bottles at passing vehicles.

Sitio Sta. Fe became notorious for rocks being thrown at speeding cars, buses, trucks and even tricycles.

I was there on a weekend and took matters into my own hands before some passing motorist or passenger got seriously hurt.

I ordered one of my farmhands to whip offending teenagers on their buttocks many times in front of their parents.

The rock-throwing completely stopped.

The boys have since then gone back to school.

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Ma. Regina Bautista, chief of the Sugar Regulatory Administration (SRA), denies she favored a Singapore-based company in the allocation of quota to the United States.

The company, ED&F Man, “satisfied the requirements under Sugar Order No. 4 series 2015-2016 (Filling up the United States Sugar Quota and Export Replacement Program for Crop Year 2015),” she says in her letter to this columnist.

Bautista says ED&F Man met the first come-first served” rule she imposed in the filing of sugar export to the US.

The firm also complied with the requirements for “vessel presentation” and sugar at port, contrary to the allegation in this corner on Tuesday, Feb. 16, says the SRA chief.